July 9, 2017

3. Shake off sloth, ease and security; indulge not yourselves, love not your carnal ease, be not drunken with the pleasures of the flesh, nor forfeit with the profits of the world, nor intoxicated with pomp and honors; set not your affections on things below, let not down your watch, be not secure nor high-minded, Rom. 3:3. [In] Cant. 5:2–6. you have there Christ knocking at the door of her heart, with importunity, and tender vehemency; for admission, and he moves and solicits, Open my sister, my spouse, &c. every word an argument, a talent weight of love; and does Christ, call and knock, and beg at the door of our souls to enter? O what vile ingratitude is it to shut him out! Doth he solicit and entreat so many ways by his Word and Ordinances, Rod, and admonitions, and motions of his Spirit, what inexcusable obstinate madness is it to drive him away! Is anything so worthy to be harbored there as he? and is it not incomparable honor that he should vouchsafe to come under our roof?

Nathaniel Heywood, Christ Displayed, as the Choicest Gift, and Best Master (London: Printed for Tho. Parkhust at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside, near Mercers-Chappel, 1679), 112.

Other men within the Augustinian tradition who use the metaphor of God begging are the following:

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About Me

I am an evangelical Christian with a B. A. in Biblical Studies from Criswell College. My basic doctrinal positions are Baptistic, Calvinistic and Premillennial.
One of my preoccupations is researching and blogging primary sources that relate to my exploration into the revealed will of God as viewed in Calvinistic history.